Computer Wiretap Case To Be Settled

It’s been in the news for some time now. But now a Philadelphia-area school district is opening its checkbook to make a laptop-spying case go away.

The Lower Merion School District says it will pay out $610,000 to settle a pair of lawsuits over secret photos taken through the webcams of the laptops while students had them at home. The school district admits it captured thousands of webcam photos and screen shots from student laptops in a misguided effort to track down missing computers. The district was sued by two students — one of whom said the district photographed him 400 times in a two-week period. And the student claims some of those photos were taken as he slept in his bedroom. The FBI investigated the case — but declined to bring a criminal wiretap case.